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Seeing eggs but no brood...3 week old swarm

I installed a swarm in my first top bar hive roughly 3 weeks ago. Checked on them today to find about 6 partially drawn comb with lots of honey. There are cells with pollen and eggs are visible. However I'm not seeing any capped brood or larva and some of the cells have more than one egg. There are also a few queen cells (I think I counted 2-3 and one is visible on the left in the first photo.) I couldn't find a queen but I'm also not good at finding her yet either. My first thought was that I'm simply expecting brood too soon but that doesn't explain the queen cells I'm seeing (if they are queen cells.) Could it be they had a queen, lost her, and now they are trying to raise a new one or do I simply have a laying worker on my hands? Any suggestions?

Re: Seeing eggs but no brood...3 week old swarm

[QUOTE=Ambassador;977696]I installed a swarm in my first top bar hive roughly 3 weeks ago. Checked on them today to find about 6 partially drawn comb with lots of honey.

Are you feeding them? If so how much and what mix?

[QUOTE=Ambassador;977696] There are cells with pollen and eggs are visible. However I'm not seeing any capped brood or larva and some of the cells have more than one egg.

If you have eggs wait... when they cap the larva you will see if they are drones. Then you can think about an old barren queen or laying workers.
My guess is that you had a cast with a virgin queen. In which case it can take a while before you will see capped brood. A new queen can lay multiple eggs in a cell. I don't think they are queen cells, maybe drones. To me this looks like a very small swarm/cast. A difficult task for a new beekeeper to build up to strength.

Re: Seeing eggs but no brood...3 week old swarm

I think I read somewhere that if you are seeing just 2, maybe 3 eggs per cell, it's likely a new queen. But the eggs will still be at the bottom and not on the sides. Laying workers, I've heard, will lay masses of eggs In a cell.

Re: Seeing eggs but no brood...3 week old swarm

Looks honeybound as well to me. You have capped syrup cells. The bees are storing faster than they are drawing comb so the queen is double laying. I would slow up or stop feeding. The hive needs brood more than stores right now.

Re: Seeing eggs but no brood...3 week old swarm

Originally Posted by Saltybee

Looks honeybound as well to me. You have capped syrup cells. The bees are storing faster than they are drawing comb so the queen is double laying. I would slow up or stop feeding. The hive needs brood more than stores right now.